Hello hello, and welcome to Episode 111 of Life On the Brink!
It’s finally SPRING! This is decidedly my favorite season, and I’m particularly excited for it this year. What with Baby Girl coming in June and lots of home and garden things happening, I feel like this season will be just glorious! Today I'm talking all about my favorite books, recipes, and activities that I'm enjoying this spring season.
In this episode I'm sharing:
-my spring TBR
-favorite seasonal recipes/little treats I've been making
-activities to soak up all this glorious weather
-renovation/nesting updates and cozy spring touches
and plenty more.
For the complete show notes, click here!
For full transcript, click here!
Site: lifeonthebrink.live
Social: @anna_on_the_keys
Hello hello, and welcome to Episode 111 of Life On the Brink!
It’s finally SPRING! This is decidedly my favorite season, and I’m particularly excited for it this year. What with Baby Girl coming in June and lots of home and garden things happening, I feel like this season will be just glorious! Today I'm talking all about my favorite books, recipes, and activities that I'm enjoying this spring season.
In this episode I'm sharing:
-my spring TBR
-favorite seasonal recipes/little treats I've been making
-activities to soak up all this glorious weather
-renovation/nesting updates and cozy spring touches
and plenty more.
For the complete show notes, click here!
For full transcript, click here!
Site: lifeonthebrink.live
Social: @anna_on_the_keys
Welcome to Life on the brink, a lovely little place filled with inspiration and creativity that is dedicated to enjoying life one day at a time. I'm Ana. And together, we're exploring the beautiful things in this world that fascinate us, and often discovering something new. Hello, hello, welcome to episode 111 of life on the brink. It is an absolutely dismal morning as I record this. It's so dark and gloomy and rainy. But I still feel springy in my heart, and it's coming and we've had a few days that really feel like it. And I can tell this weekend, which is also going to be Easter weekend, it's going to feel like spring and I think it's going to be the real transition for the weather. And so I am so excited about today's episode, I'm just going to be sharing a lot of spring inspirations things that I have already been enjoying to anticipate the season or I look forward to enjoying this spring. So I hope you're doing well. And I don't know about you, but my March has gone by very quickly. I think it just must be the early Easter like it feels like this month flew by and it's already going to be April. And April is one of my favorite months by far. I mean it has my birthday in it, but it's just like the peak of spring and I love it so much. I can't believe it's happening. Like I am excited about it the way I'm excited about like Christmas. Obviously, this spring is even more special as I will be getting more and more pregnant. And before the first of summer I will have a little baby. And so I'm a this is a really special sweet season before everything changes. And I'm just really trying to be even more present. And I think the fact that I was sick for a couple of weeks like it was rough, I am finally coming up out of it. I just being well feels good. I had I think just a cold or something but it kept going and then last week I had a fever out of nowhere. And I like I said okay enough, I need to see somebody and I'm getting much better. I got on some medicine and everything with the baby seems to be going well. But now that I feel I can actually move and breathe and have a normal routine or developing a routine for spring. I'm really excited to get into it. So today I have a just kind of a list. It's a bit of a random hodgepodge of just spring inspirations. I will be sharing the books that I plan on reading this season as well. I love seasonal reading. And I think I'm going to save garden stuff for another episode. Once I've done more. My my frost date or the last frost date for my zone. I'm in zone eight, b i think that's next week. And so I will get a lot of stuff done and then update with garden. But we're going to talk about books and home things and cooking and activities and things to just really soak up the spring because this winter felt really long and I've just decided spring is my favorite like I have gone back and forth but spring is my favorite season. It's just the best. So let's get into it. Go ahead and make yourself a nice cup of tea or an iced tea if you like. That's what I have today. I've been doing a particular preparation of green tea that has just been oh my goodness treating me very well. Basically what I do is I will brew a small amount of loose leaf green tea, and then I'll strain it and add ice and then a little bit of Trader Joe's makes this brown sugar oat milk creamer and I've been enjoying it lately like frothing it and putting it on coffee and stuff but if you add a little bit of that creamer to green tea it has it's like reminiscent of a green milk tea from like a Boba shop, because usually the boba pearls are in sort of a brown sugar syrup. So that little bit of the combo of those flavors, green tea and brown sugar It feels like a tea shop drink, and it's delicious. And it's just sweet enough from the creamer. And so that's what I've been making several times this week. And that's what I have right now. But whatever you prefer to drink, go ahead and feel free to pause or just take me with you and make yourself a nice comforting, sweet cup. And let's talk about books first. So, again, I'm not tracking my number of books this year. But I do have a nice selection. I've got five that I'm looking forward to reading this season two of them, I'm I'm already in the midst of it. And I may also start reading dune on the side, but that's not a very springy read. So I'm just leaving that in a different mental category. I haven't seen the movies and they look really great. And but I want to read the book first. Anyway, the first of these books is a memoir that I'm maybe almost halfway through and I'm loving it so much. It's called 52 loaves half baked adventure by William Alexander. Let me read you the synopsis. Basically. He wants to make a perfect loaf of bread of what he calls peasant bread. Let's see in the blurb it says without success. Now on the theory that practice makes perfect. He sets out to bake peasant bread every week until he gets it right. He bakes his low from scratch. And because Alexandria is nothing if not Thoreau, he starts like milling and growing his own weed and etc, etc. So it says an original take on the 6000 year old staple of life 52 loaves explores the nature of obsession, the meditative quality of ritual, the futility of trying to recreate something perfect or deep connection to the earth and the mysterious instinct that makes us all respond to the aroma of baking bread. I love that I have not yet entered my bread journey. But I feel like maybe this is the spring, maybe I am going to talk a little bit more about some, some bread like things later on. But this book is making it feel way more approachable. And sourdough in particular has intimidated me for a while. But this book is really inspiring me. The structure of it is so clever. I really like his writing. And I love how thorough he is like he's dedicating a whole year to trying to make a perfect loaf of bread. And so he's talking with different bakers and Millers. And it's just I love that level of dedication to a hobby. And it's it's been really light hearted and enjoy. And I've learned a lot about wheat about yeast about lots of different bread things. It's way more involved than I realized. And I have a whole new level of respect for Baker's for sure. And I can see in the table of contents that there's some recipes in the back of the book. So maybe I'll take a crack at those. But that is 52 loaves, I really enjoy it. And yeah, I recommend it. The next book, I think the rest of these are all fiction. Yeah. And I'm in the process. I've sort of started a maybe like 50 pages in or so a book that I stumbled upon in like an old bookstore. It's called Emily's voice by Susan Dunlap, and I really liked the setting of it. Let's see, I will read you the part of the blurb here. Set against the backdrop of Paris in the Court of Versailles, Emily's voice introduces a young heroine of modest upbringing, who possesses a special gift, the voice of an angel. And so basically, she is thrown into court life in the court of Louis the 14th. And it also contains the character of the court composer of the time John Pepsi's Lu Li, which is someone that I had to study in music school and so I'm, I'm very interested to see just how that all plays out. I was just in the mood for some historical fiction, something not super heavy. And I think I've mentioned this before, but in the spring I tend to get back to my classical roots a little bit I listen to more classical music and I'm interested in reading things set in older time periods. And so this is my little bit of historical fiction. Emily's voice I am liking the voice of the the narrator and the world of the story. So we'll see but that is Emily's voice. And then this is a new a new book for this year. I'm pretty sure it just came out but everyone's Been I've seen it all over the place but it looks like exactly the kind of thing I will enjoy this spring called Ready or not by Cara. Bastogne or Bastogne perhaps. I know that it's a romance and in New York but I know that it also has pregnancy as a an element. In fact, this is not spoilers. The very first beginning part of the blurb says a surprise pregnancy leads to an even more life changing Oh leads to even more life changing revelations in this heartfelt slowburn friends delivers romance of found family and unexpected love. The covers beautiful, it's all the spring colors that you can imagine. And I've seen some people say I really liked this book, and I don't like the pregnancy trope. And I've been thinking a little bit lately about how perhaps for the sake of like search engines, or how hashtags have formed, the way we search for books, how sometimes books are just sort of reduced to their tropes. I mean, even in this the description I just read, it just says slowburn friends to lovers found family all of these are very trophy, searchable things. But I don't think that necessarily the presence of a pregnancy is a trope in its like in and of itself. And obviously I am pregnant right now. And so I'm interested in reading stories that contain it. But people have really been enjoying it. And so I've ordered a copy. And I'm, I'm really excited for that. So, so far we've had a culinary memoir, we've got historical fiction, we've got a spring romance, or at least I'm calling it spring romance. I'm not quite sure. So then, of course, we have to get into the pastoral side of reading. I am finally going to just read through and understand the wind in the willows, which I believe is like a children's book, I'm pretty sure yeah, it as I'm looking at it. It's a bunch of talking animals, and I'm not sure I've I've got a secondhand copy coming to me. And I'm not sure if the illustrations are consistent across Publishing's. But let's see, for more than a century the wind in the willows and its endearing protagonists, mole, water rat badger and of course, the incorrigible Toad have enchanted children of all ages, whether the four friends are setting forth on an exciting adventure, engaging in a comic caper, or simply relaxing by the River Thames. Their stories will surprise and captivate you, I'm just looking for some wholesome reading this spring, sometimes, you just need something light and whimsical to fill your brain and your imagination with something beautiful. You know, the hormones have been what they have been in this pregnancy. And sometimes I don't want to read anything heavy at all. And so I also think that this is going to be a nice book to have in my home library and then be able to share it with my kids. And I've just never sat down and read this book. It was never a part of my growing up. And so I'm going to do that. So that's the Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Graham. And finally, this is a book that I had on my list for a while I have on Goodreads shelves by season, as well as by genre. And this one has sat on the spring shelf for a while. And it also just sounded a little bit fantastical. Another area that sort of calls to me in spring when it comes to reading is like lighter fairy tales. And last year I read or listened to the secret garden, and that I think, touched that enough for me. But this is called spindles end by Robin McKinley. So the description is this all the creatures of the forest and field and riverbank knew the infant was special. She was the princess Spirited Away from the evil fairy per Nisha interesting name. On her name day but the curse was cast. Rosie was fated to prick her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel and fall into a poisoned sleep, a slumber from which no one would be able to rouse her so obviously a telling of Sleeping Beauty. And I believe this is in its categorized at least on good reads as young adult and young adult fantasy. And I believe Robin McKinley she has several retellings of fairy tales. So this one called out to me sleeping beauty was my favorite one growing up so we shall see how it goes. But again, I'm just really interested in some lighthearted reading this spring. And if I read dune then that will be the change of base for me. Also, if you you'd like to connect with me over on Goodreads. I'll leave a link to my profile in the show notes. I enjoy seeing what other people are reading. And I'm going to make my way through these spring reads. So I'm excited for those. And let's move into some other spring. Fun things. I'm not sure how to categorize this section, just the things to enjoy this spring. Basically, conglomeration of some favorites right now, hashtag spring favorites, and things and I'm looking forward to this season. First, I really only got like one show or TV show, to recommend. And that is simply the fact that I finally watched Queen Charlotte, the bridgerton series, because I was sick last week, and I just plowed my way through it. And obviously bridgerton season three is coming in May. And I'm very excited for it. I, I have no shame in saying that. I love this show. And I can't wait for season three. And so I watched Queen Charlotte and I really enjoyed it a little bit heavier than a normal bridgerton season. But I thought that it was beautiful the way that love later in life like older love, as well as a very steadfast like, sticking with your partner through huge challenges. I really just enjoyed the themes of it in that regard. And it just made me really excited for season three, because I'll tell you what, a lot of good TV is coming in June, which is right when I'm due. So perhaps it'll be like just in time for me to be nursing and, and understanding newborn life. But I also will recommend to you I've know I've talked about it before, and it's not very springy, but season three of the bear is coming back on in June. And so if you haven't seen seasons one and two, now is your time, that is your spring TV show. It is such a good show. And then I also am a fan of House of the dragon. And I'm very excited about season two premiere this June as well. So those are some things that I've been enjoying. But like I said, I feel like bridgerton is the perfect spring show they are correct in releasing it when they do. And yeah, if you haven't seen Queen Charlotte, I do actually think that it's good to see because there's a double timeline thing going on. And I think that some of the things that are explored in Queen Charlotte will be picked up in later seasons. So that's really all I have, in terms of other media got more book recommendations than anything else. Let's move over to the home. Because I feel like the spring is going to be the true expression of my nesting journey. And I feel like that will probably hit me, maybe more so in May. But first I'd like to just share a little bit of some renovation updates because I so appreciated everyone's feedback and love as a few episodes ago and I was sharing the one year recap where there's been some very cool developments just in the past couple of weeks. One of which is that the room that is like a spare room that's going to be the library has been painted. And I found on Facebook marketplace, a set of bookshelves that are beautiful, like they're real wood, they're in great condition. They're exactly the right height and width that I needed. And they're in the library. It's done. And I put all of my books, aside from my cookbooks which are downstairs into these bookshelves and they don't take up any space at all I have so much room and it feels fantastic. So I'm also excited for the spring reads because I think I'm gonna have a shelf that is like featured kind of front and center on the top shelf. That is whatever season we're in. So I'm going to set up a nice pretty springy shelf and style the rest of the shelves. That's obviously not my priority this spring. But I am really excited about these bookshelves and once we get the other rooms done then I'm going to return and slowly decorated until it is absolutely magical but the bookshelves are in. I couldn't be more excited about them. Also Josh and I figured out how to do like a little bit of drywall repair. And we we did that in the bathroom that's upstairs. And because we took out a huge She's, like not very functional vanity. And so it's painted now, and soon the floor is going to be replaced. And it's all going to come together and be a beautiful functional bathroom upstairs. I'm so excited. Once that is done, then we're going to move to the nursery and I, I've been collecting things, so that it'll hopefully come together really quickly. I'm hoping to get the nursery set up by the end of April. But we will see about that I have some wallpaper for one of the walls, and I'm going to share plenty of pictures when I got it all set, it's going to be so cute. I've got a rug and a crib and a beautiful rocking chair and like a changing table. And I'm collecting little bits. And I need like a table to put next to the chair and a clock probably and some curtains but it's going to be so precious. I'm so excited. I've never I've obviously never like designed a nursery and there's not a particular color or theme. But there's a color scheme and it's like beautiful soft yellows and like a turquoise blue and a soft green. Basically everything that's in this wallpaper. Oh no a pink obviously. And so as I do, I've just been on Facebook marketplace looking for various furnitures. And then when I see it, I snatch it up and I've just been storing it. But that room is the only one pretty much on the second floor that has a window facing the backyard, which is East. And so the morning light in particular, it just makes the whole space glow and it's going to be the most peaceful and beautiful space. I'm very, very excited and I'm just going to let all of my maternal excitements and the nesting urges, drive me to complete this room. So that's where I am with that. I obviously for spring moving on from renovations. I love to have fresh flowers in the home all year round, basically, at least one little bouquet on the dining room table. But in spring, like even more, I enjoy either getting some from a garden, or splitting a larger bouquet into smaller pieces just so I can have like a little vase on my vanity in the bedroom or something in the bathroom or on the coffee table or stuff like that. I think that it immediately just adds a freshness and a little bit of color. And I love fresh flowers in the spring. Obviously florals for spring groundbreaking, but they are lovely. And I also have just really come to associate a particular candle with springtime. It's from Bath and Bodyworks it's their Strawberry Poundcake candle. And I know that sounds like maybe that would be too sweet or too overpowering. But I love it. It's not what I expected when I first I think it was a gift when I first got it, but now it's like the spring sent. I love it. And I also got the hand cream of that scent so that every night when I go to bed, you know I have my little routine. And then I come and I take my prenatal vitamin and I put on this hand cream and it's just like a little scent treat for myself last thing of the whole day. And the sound is just it's sweet but it's not overpowering in my opinion. And I also this year I found another candle there at Bath and Bodyworks called what is it called Pink lavender and espresso, the lavender and espresso together. I can't explain why I love it so much. I don't think that it's too too overpowering and like the coffee sector. It's it's clearly espresso has a scent but I really enjoy it. I tend to gravitate towards warmer scents anyway so if you also enjoy those, I'd recommend checking out those candles and I'm going to leave some links to them online as well. All right, let's move into the kitchen. I've got some basically some food slash treat favorites right now. And some plans for baking this spring. First, well this isn't in my kitchen but I have not had such a I have not enjoyed a Starbucks beverage as much as I enjoy the what is it's an oat milk, iced matcha with the lavender cold foam. I love that It's an issue, the lavender series at Starbucks right now, I know that it's going to be a very short lived thing. And then it's going to be like, I don't know, coconut or something. And so I'm and my sister and I are already trying to formulate how to recreate this cold foam, because the lavender with the matcha is just so good. It's obviously there's floral notes, but it's also very earthy. And I think the oat milk with it is just so nice. So that's been a recent, I won't say obsession, but it's been an intense love. But I have made two very special things in the kitchen lately. The first of which is a chicken soup. And it was probably the best chicken soup I'd ever made. Again, it was during that week when I was kind of sick. And I'll tell you like the reasons that it was so good. There's a few little things that have just taken it to the next level. So I'll just walk you through it. Obviously beginning with onion, carrot, celery, as any chicken soup usually does. Several garlic cloves chopped up just you know getting it going in the Dutch oven. I think it was then what did I do? I added dried thyme and bay leaves. And once the stuff was nice and caramelized in the pan, so I'll pepper it glazed it with a little bit of white wine. Wine in soup is awesome. And obviously I wait for all the alcohol to burn out until the liquid has basically evaporated. And I added some chicken broth. And then what was the other Oh yes, I added a parmesan rind which if you're not on the parmesan rind game yet, I would look into it because adding that little piece you know when you get to the end of a parmesan, especially if it's a real one like a Parmesan Reggiano. There's that rind the end where it's too difficult to great. You can't get all of that Parmesan. I just wrap it up in a piece of foil, stick it in the fridge and then I plop it into a soup in the near future. And it adds a nice little like savory, slightly salty element to the soup broth. It's amazing. So then I also this is the other thing that I like levels up the chicken soup is a lemon. So I cut one in half and I squeezed the juice of one half of the lemon over it. Maybe it was during the wine stage I don't remember. And then once I add the chicken stock and the parmesan rind, then I just plopped the other half of the lemon, like the whole thing into the soup. Oh, you know what I forgot to mention, I also add cannelini beans in with the other vegetables. That's just me. And I really like the bean element there. So then I added some boneless skinless chicken thighs brought all of that to like a low boil and let it go until the chicken was cooked through. Did I do anything else I'm pretty sure that's it until you take out the chicken you shred it up, take out the other half of the lemon squeeze all the juice out and take out the parmesan rind and the bay leaves if you can find them. And then I took a huge scoop of in this case it was storebought pesto. If I had homemade I would have used it but I didn't you know and you add pesto directly into the broth. Basically it's like a chicken soup crossed with a super P stew, which is a French soup. It's like a summer vegetable soup that you top with a fresh or pesto. And that also has beans in it. I think that's how they ended up in my chicken soup. And it's so good. It was delicious. This soup and you could serve it with noodles in it or you could make rice I almost made rice but instead we just had big pieces of sourdough bread with butter. Oh my goodness, so comforting and delicious. So the things that brought it to the next level with a white wine, the lemon Parmesan rind and the pesto. I'm never going back. It was such a nice springtime soup. And then I was just sort of messing around in the kitchen and decided to try and make some Reese's eggs, you know, it's like around Easter time, they come up with the seasonal shape of egg. And I thought you know, I bet I can make that and like a protein bite sort of thing. And so I did and I didn't really measure it, but I have found a recipe afterwards and I'm gonna link it in the show notes. That is basically the same thing that I did and they haven't measured out I basically just combined natural peanut butter with maple syrup and vanilla protein powder, formed it into little egg shapes. And then I froze them for a while and I mixed our melted dark chocolate with some coconut oil. And then like coated the frozen peanut butter, egg shapes in the chocolate, put it on parchment, sprinkled with sea salt and put them back in the freezer. The melting point is pretty high or is it low, it will melt easily because of the coconut oil. So I keep them in the freezer anyway. But Josh and I have really been enjoying them and so I made like a little Easter candy a little treat, just keeping them in the freezer. And so I did find a recipe that is similar called Healthy Reese's eggs. So feel free to check out it was very easy. It was very easy. Okay, baking. Basically, I like I mentioned earlier in the episode, I'm going to talk about bread for a second. I made focaccia one time this past winter. I may have talked about it before, I don't know. And it was very simple. It's Bon Appetit recipe for an easy no need for Katya. It was gorgeous, and it tasted delicious. And I want to make it so many more times. And I think I'm going to try and get creative with the toppings, especially with spring time. I just feel like this is the time for all kinds of crazy for coaches. And so my hope is to do at least two or three more combinations with other toppings and vegetables and things like that. And you know, my family gets together every Sunday for family dinner. So I always have something that I can make bread for. And I think I'm going to use that opportunity. But this weekend, which is Easter weekend, obviously, I will not be making focaccia as I will be making hot cross buns. Basically, I try this recipe once a year and I don't make it in advance. To practice I just see what happens. The recipe that I've been using is from Sally's baking addiction, which is a great baking blog. And it's a really beautiful recipe because it's got orange zest and cinnamon and nutmeg and raisins. And she makes a like an orange glaze to go on top of the bread. Last year, they did not rise hardly at all, I have no idea why I'm trying to understand yeast. When I made this focaccia, I used instant yeast and it was great. So I think I'm only using instant right now. And we'll see how it goes. I plan to bake them all on Saturday, I think because Sunday, it's just going to be too too much going on, I'm not gonna be able to bake. So maybe they'll rise, hopefully they'll rise. But there's slightly sweet bread, and I love them. And I'll be sure to share a picture of them either over on Instagram, or I'll probably share it in the newsletter next week. That'll come out at the beginning of April. So if you'd like to see, feel free to subscribe to the free monthly newsletter, you can do that on the website. So those are my baking projects for the spring. Of course, I always end up doing like a quick pancake or something to go with strawberries. Oh, we have to talk about strawberries. I'll get to that in a second. I always well, I can't even say I like baking in the spring because I like baking in the winter too. It was actually like such an important part of my winter. But in the spring when all the fruits come out and all the herbs, I just want to make fresh light things and whipped cream and oh my goodness. So very excited about that. But let's talk about strawberries for a second because now we're going to move into the category of things to do or activities, things that I hope to incorporate into this spring. Starting with strawberries, I went strawberry picking in 2020 and then again in 2021 at two different farms. And it's been since 2021. So three years since I've done that, and I miss it I really want to go and so where I live there's a ton of strawberry farms within an hour from me in the south south eastern portion of Virginia down in Virginia Beach, almost to the North Carolina side. There's always so many strawberries in fact, there used to be a festival but I think they canceled the festival. But anyway, if you have not been it is completely worth it because you know when you get a carton of strawberries and there's always like three or four that are the best ones. They're that perfectly done. Dark red and they smell so sweet. They're like the best ones, you can make a basket full of only those. Imagine that, because you're picking the ones that are the ripest at that moment. Harvesting strawberries is a very easy process. And I've even grown strawberries the past couple of years, but a lot like the squirrels, they love to eat them. I like it, I've doubt I'm gonna get many out of my own plants, I plan on basically just growing them this year for the leafs so I can harvest the leaves and make tea. But I can't wait, I'm gonna go to a strawberry farm. I don't know which one yet. But then I love going through, you know, if they have a country store next to it, and they make they make jams like it's ideal. And then usually, I think one of the best ways to go about it, if you get a ton of strawberries, which I usually do is to take them all home, wash them all haul them all. It's it's a bit of an endeavor, but take all the greens off, and then have some fresh, maybe prepare some as some jam, that same time or I freeze a bunch of them. I'll tell you, there's just nothing better than a perfectly ripe strawberry. Like that may be my favorite fruit. It's just, it's perfect. And I've been waiting all winter for berry season. And theirs is the first one I think so I would have a look in your area to see where you might be able to pick some strawberries or some flowers. Um, that's going to bring me to my next next point, which is that I find a lot of farms will. Even if they don't specialize in flowers, we'll have a little bit of some cut flowers, maybe more so in the summer. But I'm really excited about this. Next week, Josh and I are going to Washington DC for like a little baby moon a little getaway before we have baby girl. And it turns out that pretty close to DC there is a tulip farm. Now tulips are my favorite flower. And we're going to be there right during peak season. And so we're going to go to this tulip farm, we're going to be able to pick tulips, like from the plants, and it's just going to be rows and rows of 1000s of tulips. And I I've wanted to go to this farm for like three or four years now, but it's finally lining up. And I'm so excited. So what's one step better than just bringing fresh flowers into your house, picking them yourself, of course. And if not, you can always do the farmers market in the middle, you know, but I've never been to a tulip farm. Last year, I did pick wildflowers at a lavender farm. They had like a huge field of wildflowers and sunflowers and things like that. But this is going to be a little taste so very excited about that. Next, I this is the perfect time to observe not only nature and the way that day by day, plants and trees are blossoming and blooming and things are becoming green again. But also birds. And I know that the types of birds will vary based on where you live. But I just love watching like for the past month, I've been seeing ducks and geese in pairs. And they'll go everywhere together. Even the owls we've seen like a pair of owls communicating with each other. And then eventually we're gonna see the little ducklings and the Gosling's. And even before I lived in a beautiful neighborhood that has a lot of trees and a pond and nature in which you can observe these things. I loved going to local parks and the botanical gardens where I would always see the little baby birds. My mom is currently on high alert because there's Robins that nest in a particular like alcove in her backyard. And she just loves watching the lifecycle of the egg. Obviously robin's eggs are just so beautiful, that shade of blue. And at my house we've also got in addition to owls, there's these huge blue herons that will fly across the pond. It's just nice to wake up to the sound of birds, and to just observe them because I love seeing the little baby birds and then watching them be adolescents. And it's I think more prevalent to see that lifecycle happen in birds than in other animals. I don't tend to see baby animals of other kinds. But it's really beautiful to be able to observe so many chain just happening quickly after the winter where things are still changing and growing, but it's just taking a long time. And so whether it's birds or its plants, just sitting outside when the weather is nice and observing what's going on, is a really calming way for me to be present in the season and to observe what's going on. And finally, I've just got two more things that I actually haven't been able to do for a while. The first of which is an old fashioned picnic. I, I used to take picnics constantly. And then I think, probably a combination of the fact that I now have a beautiful outdoor dining set, and I eat outside a lot. And I don't know, I don't know why I didn't more last year. But I'm gonna get back to my picnicking roots of laying out a blanket going to another park to somewhere beautiful, and just enjoying a meal outside. Like I said, today, as I'm recording this, it's rainy and gross. So I'm like, double excited for beautiful sunny days. And just being outside as much as I can. Basically, I do have an episode, it was episode 21, which is quite a while back now called The Art of the picnic, in which I basically broke down my favorite way to picnic and how to make it lovely. Without making it difficult. I love being able to be always ready for a picnic. Basically, I can grab things in my kitchen, anytime from the spring and summer, and be ready to go on a picnic. And then finally also farmers markets, I can't tell you how excited I am to go to the farmers market. My favorite one my local one which is in Colonial Williamsburg. It's It's glorious. It's probably my favorite place on earth is this particular location in Colonial Williamsburg during the farmers market. And it's been going for like two weeks already. And I haven't gone. I had a scheduling conflict the first week and then the second week, it was actually canceled for more terrible weather. But this weekend, Easter weekend, it's going to be glorious, and the sun is going to be out in I'm going. I said Josh, we are going to the market. My favorite bakery has returned. They weren't there last year, and now they're back. And so it's going to be cross home and coffee. And walking around. And I'm going to I don't know, maybe I'll wear like a pretty dress and have my bumper looking real cute. I have this dream to be able to go to the farmers market with our baby like strapped to me or wrapped up in the thing or with the stroller. It's one of those like, I can't believe that is going to be my life. Yeah, I love the farmers market so much. And just getting a coffee and walking around. And there's a few in my area that I do enjoy. And I'll rotate throughout the whole season. But my favorite one is finally happening. So I'm counting down the days basically. And I also have another episode of the podcast to share. Episode 26 is called enjoying your local farmers market and simple springtime recipes. So you can see I was clearly getting into the market mood that spring as well as a few springs ago. But any step that will bring me closer to the food, like to the ingredients, whether it's growing them myself or going directly to the grower. It just feels so natural. I just love it. So I highly recommend it. If you are not yet a farmers market person or haven't been haven't fallen in love with it. Go ahead and listen to episode 26. And please do so. And that's about it. Those are all the things that I'm looking really forward to. Yeah, next week, I'll be in DC. Hopefully I'll see the end of cherry blossom season. Josh and I are going to high tea, which I haven't done since we were in Canada like a year and a half ago. And we're just going to have a nice little getaway before the baby comes. So I'm sure I will update about those things as well as the hot cross buns on the newsletter, which is going to come out and of next week. So if you haven't subscribed, you can head over to the website, which is life on the brink dot live. And at the bottom of every page, there's a little tab on the left side where you can sign up and you only get one email a month. I'm not gonna send you a bunch of stuff, but it's got extra little joys and keeps you updated in the loop and all that sort of thing. So I hope you are sufficiently excited about the spring season. And I hope that your weather is better than mine right now. And that it warms up soon and you're able to enjoy all of these beautiful things. And now I'll be right back with this week's little joy All right, so this week's little joy is one of many really fun gatherings that I've had lately. It's been a way that I've been able to cope much better with the end of winter, and the darkness. And I think it's showing me how, how I ought to incorporate that even more. So in future winters. Basically, I need to throw a party every now and then. And I have enjoyed sort of impromptu game nights, and I'll bake a little something and it comes together really quickly. And that's really fun. But also fun is to plan a party. And so I had a little party at my house last week, and it didn't take much effort. But it was so so fun. Basically, it was a PowerPoint party, if you've seen any of these online, in which group of friends and I like we all presented a short PowerPoint, it was usually somewhere between like five and 10 minutes overall, on whatever you want. And so we had some that were very informative, very informative. I learned a lot, some that were just purely silly, or were really heartfelt. I did mine on a nerdy music thing, obviously, because I could just talk about it all day long. But we all made little PowerPoints. And I had everyone send me theirs ahead of time. So I had them all set up on my computer in order and then we just hooked it up to the TV and I bought like a an $8 clicky thingy on Amazon that, you know you you have no idea what it's called. But you hook it up to the PowerPoint, and you can click, and it goes to the next slide. And it has a laser pointer and stuff like that. So it felt very official. But as far as the food, we just did like a soup and salad and I made a bunch of grilled cheeses. Everyone brought soup, and it was all very low key, I didn't have to make a huge menu. Just made a bunch of grilled cheese. And it was really nice. It was casual, but it felt organized enough. So it wasn't chaotic. And I loved it, it's going to definitely be one of many. And I think basically in the winter after Christmas, I think I need like one party per month, I hosted to actual sort of like evening slash party events. But I think I need one more right in the middle. So power PowerPoint party, big success, totally recommend. I learned a lot about different things and about my friends. And we all got to talk about something that we're passionate about. So that was this week's little joy. And it was very joyful indeed. And finally an album of music. I have begun listening to Jacob Colliers album, I believe it's pronounced Jesse, I believe. So, Jesse volume four. And I haven't got all the way through it. I've got most of the way through it. But I'm not just listening to it. While I'm doing other things, I'm really listening to it. And Josh is listening to it with me, because it's some of the best music you guys like. Obviously, he's on another level in terms of musician, musicianship. But I like it's making me weep. Basically, the second track, I was like, our I was already thinking about my baby, and just feeling a lot of things. And after a few tracks, I've kind of decided like, this album is about her. And I know that I'm going to associate listening to this album with being pregnant. And so it's making it really special to listen to it. The second track is called she puts sunshine and I felt that in my core, but there's so many songs that are just so beautiful and so many collaborations. I hope he wins a Grammy. I hope he wins a lot of stuff for this album. So this is a really excellent album of music. I really recommend it. It kind of crosses over many genres. Just let it happen. Just listen and see how it goes. Okay, well, I've talked for a long time about things that I'm very excited about. And so if you are also equally excited and would like to tell me about what you're going to enjoy This spring, or what books you're reading, feel free to leave a comment on the blog post at life on the brink dot live. I do love I read all of them whenever they show up. And if you haven't yet left an Apple star rating or review, or on Spotify, so many people ask me, How do you do that if you know if you don't listen on Spotify or Apple I totally understand like, it's, it's much more difficult. But if you're on Spotify, there's a way that you can just leave a star rating. And if you really liked this episode, then you can add a lot of stars. And if you listen on Apple, then you can not only leave a star review, but you are a star rating, but there's space where you can explain why you like the podcast. And so if you really liked this episode, then you can tell everybody why. And I already talked about the newsletter and stuff. And so yeah, I am really looking forward to next week on spring break. I'm gonna be traveling a little bit and just soaking up this season. And so I hope that you're able to take some time, even just an afternoon to read a springtime book outside to look at the birds and the plants and make something new. I wish you all the best. I hope you have a beautiful weekend and I'll be back in two weeks with a very garden II springtime episode. Thank you for joining me and happy spring thank you for tuning into this episode of Life on the brink. If you're enjoying these episodes, please feel free to leave a star rating or even better leave a review on Apple podcasts to help spread the word. For podcast show notes and extra inspirational posts throughout the week. Head to the blog at life on the brink dot live. And if you'd like a little extra dose of inspiration in your life, sign up for the monthly newsletter, which lights up your inbox the first Friday of each month. Thank you so much for listening. And until next time, friends you have a lovely week. Bye